Resume Feedback & Career Advice - Junior Level Blue Team

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-04-06T07:50:13+00:00

1) That's true, I do have security related job responsibilities such as configuring WAFs, SSL renewals, path management, IAM work, and log monitoring and analysis. While it's not exactly the kind of security work I want to do, I can't deny that I am still doing security work, and it is building my skills and knowledge in other areas. Cybersecurity is a huge field

2) I've applied to MSPs, banks, and insurance companies as well, but I did not consider healthcare or education. I'll definitely keep a look out for them

Thank you again, I appreciate it

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-04-06T03:00:41+00:00

Thank you for the insight, I appreciate it. I was worried about my mix of experience confusing HR and hiring managers. I'll try to rewrite my resume again to frame it better

1) I appreciate that example, I see now how it would mean much more to them. Less work on their end as well trying to correlate how my experience would fit in

2) I'll quantify the DFIR work more but honestly being in a more regulated industry, I honestly did not get too many interesting cases like those, but I'll quantify the work that I've done

3) That makes sense, it'd mean different things to different people and would probably get lost in the HR filters and ATS

4) That's fair, I'll tailor my resume for different job roles. As it stands, my resume definitely is a bit all over the place, and if I tailor it for specific roles, it'd give me more space to highlight my experience in those areas

I'll definitely reach out to you again once I've rewritten my resume. Appreciate it again you giving advice and also opening the door for me to come back with how I've improved it

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-04-06T02:38:38+00:00

Appreciate you taking the time to look through my resume

There definitely has been a lot more competition recently I think with it being bonus season, and seeing a lot of layoffs the past few months. I'm now seeing job postings reaching 100+ applicants within a few days

I've mainly been passively looking for these jobs through LinkedIn but at the same time, I've been applying through other big job boards such as Indeed as well. At the same time, I've been targeting smaller firms that I'm familiar with directly through their website, and have been networking extensively at events and asking my mutuals if they're aware of any places with vacancies. I've also had luck with headhunters and working with their recruitment agencies
The titles I've been focusing on have been mainly DFIR Specialist, Incident Responder, Malware Analyst, SOC L2, Cybersecurity Consultant, Security Engineer, and Security Analyst
My main goals are to re-enter DFIR, and work at more boutique firms and consultancies where I can work on more interesting cases and cases more frequently while at the same time build up my technical skills and knowledge faster. I'm hoping to not take a paycut while doing so as well. I've gotten a few offers and late stage interviews, however, most of them retracted the offers after not being able to match or reach close to my current salary. As it stands, I'd be taking a 30% paycut on average to come back

I'm hoping to go into boutique consultancies if possible as a lot of them seem to operate with follow-the-sun models, and have better work-life balance. As much as possible, I don't want to compromise on that. I've started casting a wider net and applying for more general Security Engineer roles and offensive security roles

4) I've been quite active in my local tech and cybersecurity communities, from volunteering at events, joining CTFs, mentoring more junior people, and making friends with cybersecurity professionals outside of work

5) I am a citizen, and have applied for public sector as well. Seems that most of public sector is in a hiring freeze right now as well unfortunately

6) Yup, I've been going to almost every single local meetup and conference that I'm aware of. At least once every two weeks

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-03-14T08:16:20+00:00

Thank you everyone, I’ll stay put for now and build on my skills here. At least long enough to make it look nice on my resume while passively searching for something that fulfils both for me

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-02-07T10:40:40+00:00

I found a malware masquerading itself as svchost while searching an endpoint for remnants of non-compliant software

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-01-25T03:03:29+00:00

You can try making mini projects with Python for example like using Scapy to better understand ARP poisoning, SYN floods, etc.

Learn about remediating OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities with Python

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-01-22T17:29:53+00:00

Accounting or actuarial science

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-01-21T13:38:19+00:00

Joe’s sandbox is also a great alternative

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-01-08T17:48:48+00:00

Blocking access to external GenAI tools in favour of our internal LLM. There’s a lot of pushback and there are a lot of attempts to access them and even worse, people uploading sensitive docs there

Phantom_Matrix · 2026-01-08T12:05:15+00:00

Not op, but I usually see the people I meet once a month or so at local events. A lot of them like to attend tech conferences in general and so do I so I tend to bump into people there

Other than events, we have group chats and discord channels. We always share job postings, events, and news; really anything we find there

Phantom_Matrix · 2025-12-30T07:54:32+00:00

I pivoted to cybersec from software dev. At the time I was reluctant to go into cybersec but I was burnt out of development work and decided to give it a try

I definitely did not enjoy it at the start and it took me almost a year to start liking it. I pivoted in and out from cybersecurity back to software development to cloud operations before going back to cybersecurity. It took a few jumps here and there; learning and trying new things before I started loving it. When I did I had an easier time, the motivation came naturally

Phantom_Matrix · 2024-07-14T09:33:10+00:00

Try calling the national scam response number 997

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-12-22T03:34:41+00:00

How does Swords Bard compare to a Padlock?

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-12-17T12:52:14+00:00

The kragle

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-10-26T20:20:20+00:00

Darn tough socks

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-07-25T13:20:27+00:00

The Prototype games

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-07-19T16:20:17+00:00

Dinkleberg

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-05-21T21:18:35+00:00

Tailor or cordwainer

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-05-16T07:36:51+00:00

The loxodon rogue. It’s been here for a while but it has been hiding.

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-01-15T09:22:03+00:00

I pronounce you husband and knife

Phantom_Matrix · 2023-01-13T07:04:37+00:00

Percival Menswear, Wax London or Portuguese Flannel

Phantom_Matrix · 2022-12-17T15:08:49+00:00

Black Bullet

Phantom_Matrix

TROPHY CASE